Wednesday, August 3, 2011

And, you know me, my blog posts are always brilliantly focused and not wandering here and there in various directions...

...and...

...what was I writing about here anyway?

Hmmm...

Hmmm...

Oh, yeah...

Entertaining royalty.

Mr. Jenny has a friend. He's been visiting us for years. Mr. Jenny calls him SirDavid and the first time I met him I was told Sir David's Father had been Knighted by Queen Elizabeth.

Apparently Sir David's Father was the “egg man” to the House of Windsor, starting in the 1930's. Wherever the King and/or Queen went, Sir David's Father would arrange to deliver fresh eggs from his farm in the Kent countryside to the Royal family.

See?

Royalty.

And since I was paying a little attention to the recent royal wedding, I realized I had been shirking my duties...

After all...

When you're entertaining royalty, you should make a bit of an effort.

So instead of my usual boring breakfast on Tuesday morning, I whipped together a gourmet Ham and Gruyere Breakfast Bake.

It was stunning.

Sir David and his wife dined sumptiously on the dish along with fresh Rainier cherries and cantaloupe.

Yum.

It was good.

Sir David and his lovely wife were pleased with the repast.

After they left the house to go sight-seeing (always a pleasure in triple digit heat advisory warnings), Mr. Jenny helped me clean up.

And told me...

"You know, he's not really a Knight, don't you? His Father, the Egg Man, won't pass the title on."

"Huh? What?" I sputtered.

Mr. Jenny repeated himself and added, "It's not the kind of Knight-hood that gets passed down through a family. I just call him that to be funny."

Hmmm...

Hmmm...

Okay.

So...I guess I technically wasn't actually entertaining royalty...

...but I was entertaining some lovely houseguests.

And perhaps if you are doing some entertaining, you might enjoy trying this recipe.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a skillet over medium to low heat. Add the onions, salt, and sugar. Sauté until they are lightly caramelized (a medium golden brown color), about 15 minutes.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, dry mustard, nutmeg, and thyme. Season with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle the ham and onions over the bread cubes. Toss together lightly. Sprinkle grated cheeses on next, and then pour the egg mixture over the entire thing.

Press down on the top gently, so that all of the bread cubes get soaked a bit with the egg mixture. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (take the casserole out of the fridge while the oven is preheating). Bake, uncovered, for 35 - 40 minutes, or until the edges are bubbling and the top begins to brown.

...

...

You're welcome.

And think how boring this would have been if I would have just said, "Here's a good recipe in case you want to try it!"

23 comments:

Jenny, you are a card. The Egg man. What a story. That breakfast was fit for a king. Maine is cooling of this week in the 70's.Getting some tree triming done on my cherry tree, and killing Jap Beetles.yvonne

Oh my such a yummy treat for sure...the photo really makes it! The all mighty egg seems to be quite alive in your life at present too! I had to laugh about their sight-seeing, I remember those visits to my grandfather's house, on the out skirts of Florence, AZ and we could never go out without taking lots of water for us...! just in case you know...the desert she's hot!

Royalty once-removed is good too, Jenny. You'd better watch it or you'll have a whole passel of royals descending on you for that breakfast.Have I ever told you about my tea with HRH Princess Anne? Now that's a story for another time.

They say I look like Princess Diana, can I come over and have some royalty breakfast? Love the post and the egg dish looks wonderful.Time to go bake cookies, the boys are camping this weekend and I am going to the craft fairs. Stay cool...Susan

Well, if it makes you feel any better, I am a distant relative to the Queen. I was a little miffed at not getting a personal invitation to the wedding, too! My grandmother is 8th cousins, so whatever that makes me, I am related to her. So, you could say, whenever I visit your blog, you are entertaining royalty, right? Because 8th cousins still makes me royal, right? Right? Sigh. At any rate, that recipe looks smashing. I will try it when I quit hatting pork. :)

Well, it is nice to know that your guests get the royal treatment. Around here, those cherries carry a royal price tag! The recipe sounds wonderful. I love breakfast casseroles, even more so for dinner!